In Kranjska Gora

“Pig paralysis”: ÖSV row after coach’s statement?

ÖSV coach Christian Perner disagrees with Julia Scheib.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

"They had pig paralysis again today," said ÖSV giant slalom coach Christian Perner on Saturday after the first run in Kranjska Gora. A statement that caused a stir. Julia Scheib, who finished fourth in the end, appealed to the coaching team.

"That really annoys me, unfortunately I lost too much time in the first run. If it had been halfway solid, I would now be on the podium. So it was a thankless fourth place," sighed Julia Scheib, who made up nine places in the giant slalom in Kranjska Gora but narrowly missed out on the podium in the end.

There was no anger in her stomach after run one and the icy conditions. "That doesn't help me anyway. But I managed to flip the switch better in run two," said the 26-year-old, who, as in Semmering, also posted a best run time in the second run on Saturday. But the Styrian was not sparing with her criticism afterwards: "We should definitely train more on ice. That's clearly a demand from us athletes and an appeal to the coaching team. Two days on ice are not enough. We need to put together more days on ice and slippery conditions."

Julia Scheib

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Words that were met with incomprehension by the federation, especially ÖSV giant slalom coach Christian Perner. "We prepared for exactly these conditions - hard, sometimes icy - and trained sensationally on the Reiteralm," explained Perner. "We didn't get the performance right." Scheib also had to miss sessions due to illness, but the team's recent training performance had been good. "Today they had the pig paralysis inside again," said Perner in the interval interview. By his own admission, he was "pissed off". "There are no more excuses, it's up to each athlete to perform themselves."

ÖSV coach Christian Perner

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Tinkering with the ice recipe
Scheib, who came third in Sölden, had come to Slovenia with confidence thanks to her best time in the Semmering final, albeit in completely different conditions. The ÖSV women had explained during the Semmering World Cup that there was a need to catch up in slippery conditions. The tenor: there were no opportunities to practise on this surface beforehand. After a "Tetschn" (Roland Assinger) in Killington, the team returned from North America alarmed. Testing and tinkering took place, and head coach Assinger announced optimistically: "We have now found ways of knowing what we need to strap on in future."

But the steep Vitranc in Podkoren was very slippery. Established Austrians such as Katharina Huber (39th), Franziska Gritsch (40th) and Katharina Liensberger (46th) gritted their teeth at the 30-meter hurdle in the first run. The top Italian skiers Federica Brignone (retirement) and Marta Bassino (42nd) and Canada's Valerie Grenier (38th) also failed early on. The only ray of hope was 20-year-old Victoria Olivier, who scored points for the first time in her third World Cup appearance in 29th place. Ricarda Haaser came 14th, Stephanie Brunner finished the penultimate giant slalom before the World Championships in 17th place.

Demonstration of power by Sara Hector 
Hector proved her brilliance on ice and extended her massive half-time lead (1.13) on the way to her seventh World Cup victory. Beaming with joy, the new overall and discipline leader (296 points) said: "I enjoy it when it's icy. It was great to ride." She had already dominated the competition in the super-icy Jasna race last January. In the fourth giant slalom of the season, Hector, who lives in Bregenzerwald, stood on the podium for the third time and collected "big points" in the bullet race, as two-time winner Federica Brignone (200) was eliminated for the second time. Scheib is in fifth place at the halfway point of the season (150).

Today(from 10 am HERE in the sportkrone.at ticker) our ÖSV ladies are out to make amends. Then the little coach-athlete spat would probably be forgotten again ...